I'm 'Grateful' for the Routine!

Happy Friday Parenting Enthusiasts!

First, a little business. A few posts ago I mentioned writing about red light behaviors and how to deal when your monsters go super-nova. I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t like how my post is coming together and I’m not in the mood right now to fix it. The upshot is, it’s still on the list. No worries, I’ll get there!

So last night I connected with my friend, who’s been having a rough year in her family life. Over the last 6 weeks, she made some drastic changes, including putting her kids into a better routine. It’s made a world of difference! She gets them up at the same time every day (school starting really helped on that front!) and has an evening meal about the same time every night. Fast forward a few weeks. The cranky kids in the morning transformed into well rested kids, excited to start the day. Mealtime meltdowns are at an all time low. And mommy “ME” time is on the rise, thanks to an earlier, more reasonable bed time hour. All of these benefits came from simply adding some structure to the day.

Along with my friend establishing a bedtime routine arose a ritual we both like to call “Gratefuls”. Gratefuls are an opportunity to review the day as a family and pick out a couple of things that made us happy. For example, in my house, we do gratefuls in my son’s room right before lights out. I lay on the bed with him, Dad sits on the comfy chair and his little sister runs about randomly while we talk. I also go through the routine again later, when it’s just her and me in her room. Last night, I was grateful we had a peaceful family dinner, with everyone eating and sharing. My son was grateful for the stories he and I make up each night, starring him! And so on. Some nights, the gratefuls are really meaningful, like last night. And other times, he just looks around the room and makes up something random. Whatever the case, I accept it, offer my own and move on down the bedtime road. It’s the routine that counts, not necessarily the quality of the content. And, heaven help you if you forget to do gratefuls! In spite of the fact he sometimes takes the lazy route, my son will holler about it just the same, should I forget. It’s that important to him.

So take a moment to look at how your family runs. Is there room for improvement on the routine front? Like it or not, kid respond to structure, and the more grounding you can offer at home in this regard, the better prepared your kids will be to handle situations in the outside world.

Happy Parenting!